In "our village" can we take pigs for "walkies"?

But of course! In our old village in Durham one could still see the remains of the pigsties that each of the old colliery houses had in their gardens; an eerie reminder of a life long vanished. Category D took away a good third of the village, including the old school, leaving a brownfield site that was turned into woodland (complete with old playground) which was all very nice - and a great place for the local kids to torch stolen cars & poachers to bag rabbits (maybe I should add that over on the Folklore: What is Folkore? thead?) until they built the posh houses on one of the finest pieces of ancient pasture because it lay within the village and wasn't, therefore, protected as greenbelt. The soul rather went out of the place after that. So - pigs in; soulless modern developments out.

Great story though, Ron - meant to ask you about it last night; I would have played McGinties Meal an Ale but it's a bit early for the harvest yet. Great night! Vintage Steamer in fact; makes a man proud so it does...

Here's free-range piggery out near Houghall, Durham City in the Summer of 2006:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNfqNLSTmts

Last time we passed, the pigs had gone and the sty was overgrown with weeds.

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..."Above the storms of passion" (Bode's hymn - "O Jesus I have promised"), we need a good village choir, with evensong at least once per week.

We used to sing Jesus I Have Promised at school to a very modern tune with rock n' roll piano stylings - something like This - so it's not one I would recommend. I like the old hymns, the harvest ones especially. Maybe Ron could be our choirmaster, as he knows a thing or two in this respect. Evensong would be every night, although I would hope we'd adopt more Catholic practices with respect of Mass & suchlike ceremonies - after all, this is what our ancient churches were built for.   Otherwise something wholesome in the Anglo-Catholic tradition with William Lawes Psalm Tones and Henry Purcell's Hear My Prayer O Lord and other settings from The Book of Common Prayer, which, being one of the glories of English spirituality, we'd have in the church along with Roman Catholic Missal and Latin Psalters. In fact - my Gnostic leanings notwithstanding - I worship at The Church of Abraham, so I'd like to see all Abrahamic Spiritual traditions catered for in our church - be they Christian, Jewish or Islamic. In fact our church should be a reflection of the diversity of human spirituality in 21st Century Britain; if the Pagans want to venerate our Green Man & Triple Hare carvings, then so be it; if New Agers want to Circle Dance in the aisles (as the Church does stand on quite an important Ley Line) then they will be welcome to do so; if the local Goths which to commune with the dead in the graveyard, then they will not be disturbed.

So come-all-ye to our Church of Human Spirituality; Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Rastas, Wiccans, Pagans, Hedgewitches, Moslems, Shamans, Jews, Christians. All welcome here! Apart from Fundamentalists, Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons of course. No room for Absolute Truths in our church!